Hidden Genre Gems for Fans of Huckleberry Finn: Cult Guide

Dir: William Desmond Taylor

Bashful stenographer Bunker Bean ( Jack Pickford ), works for wealthy businessman Jim Breede by day and by night theosophist Prof. Balthasar, who convinces Bean that he is the reincarnation of Napoleon and, more remotely, of the great Egyptian king Ramses. His courage much bolstered by this revelation, Bean begins to deport himself with unaccustomed dignity and becomes a regular visitor to old Breede's estate, where he successfully courts the boss's daughter ( Louise Huff ), "The Flapper." With his $10,000 inheritance, Bean invests in a financial venture that nets him millions and purchases the alleged mummy of Ramses from the professor. After his marriage to The Flapper, Bean learns that the professor is a charlatan, and realizes that it is the belief in one's own strength of character that leads to success.

Dir: William Desmond Taylor

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Her Father's Son perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A Union officer exposes the several deceptions his sweetheart has been engaging in, which include spying for the Confederacy and posing as a boy to comfort her aging, wealthy, heirless uncle.

Dir: William Desmond Taylor

When a young woman deserts her rancher husband and, with her son Ben, goes to live with the drunken Tom Blair. Blair raises Ben as his son, but kills Ben's mother, causing the boy to return to his natural father. There, Ben falls in love with Florence Winthrop. Later, Ben gains revenge for his mother's death by killing Tom, but he loses Florence, who decides to live in the East. When Ben learns that Florence has become engaged, he goes after her and issues an ultimatum: if she does not take him back, he will kill her fiancé. After first resenting Ben for his demand, Florence realizes that she loves him and returns West with him.

Dir: William Desmond Taylor

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Ben Blair perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

The adventures of Pasquale, an Italian immigrant to New York who runs a little grocery store.

Dir: William Desmond Taylor

A widowed farmer, failing in his efforts to find a woman capable of running his household, decides to marry a young woman he believes can fill the bill. Wat he doesn't know is that she is running away from a brutish and violent husband, whom she has discovered is also a bigamist, and that her angry and vengeful husband is looking for her.

Dir: William Desmond Taylor

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Pasquale perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A tough preacher comes to the rip-roaring gold town of Panamint in hopes of reforming it. But disaster awaits.

Dir: William Desmond Taylor

The story of the famous Tennessee frontiersman, soldier, scout, and Congressman who fought and died at the Alamo.

Dir: William Desmond Taylor

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of He Fell in Love with His Wife perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

The infant daughter of a wealthy couple is thought to be lost at sea, but she survives and is raised by a poor family.

Dir: William Desmond Taylor

Stella Benton, a young society girl who has lost her beautiful voice through the death of her father, goes to live with her brother Charles, in the lumber camp. Charles Benton is having a struggle to make both ends meet, and when his cook quits, he makes his sister do the work for the hundred men in the lumber camp. Jack Fyfe, a neighboring lumber man, meets Stella and gradually falls in love with her, but love is not reciprocated. Seeing that she is being overworked, Fyfe offers to marry her, in spite of the fact that she does not love him. A child is born of this loveless marriage, and the couple are reasonably happy, until Walter Monahan, a wealthy lumberman, begins to make love to Stella. She gradually becomes tired of her husband, and when the child dies, decides to leave him. Her voice returns, and she makes a substantial success as a concert singer. Monahan, who has professed love for her, becomes indifferent, but she will not return to Fyfe, in spite of his pleadings. Monahan, jealous of Fyfe's success, sets fire to his holdings and is caught in the act. Friends telephone this fact to Stella, and she immediately returns to the lumber camp, and there, at their home she finds Jack, heartbroken, as his holdings are on fire and there is nothing but a heavy rain which could save them. She comes to him and offers to use her own money to retrieve his lost fortune, and as she goes into his arms, the heavy downpour of rain comes and they are safe.

Dir: William Desmond Taylor

James Aldrich is a cinch to win the election as United States Senator until his opponent, Tom Ryan offers a big reward to anyone who can find a scandal in Aldrich's past. Newspaper editor Howard Duncan and his star reporter Ruby Sheldon accept the challenge and, after deciding that Aldrich is straight, decide to investigate his wife Agnes. Going back through the files, they discover that Agnes has been accused of murder and threaten the Aldrichs with exposure. Agnes explains her tragic story, and how she escaped from the drunken savage Steve O'Brien, whose life she had to take in order to save her own. The reporters are so moved that they decide to bury Agnes' past and the heart-breaking story only increases the love of Aldrich for his wife.